Wealthy Childless Philanthropists with Neighborhood Connections

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Our neighborhood, and Philadelphia in general, owes a debt of gratitude to those Philadelphia philanthropists who founded institutions of service via bequests in their estates. A common thread through the following large bequests is the childless status of the benefactor. In these history pages we have discussed a few so far:

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Jonas Preston (1764-1836): in 1836 Preston left $250,000 (today’s value $6 million) to the State for the construction and maintenance of a lying-in hospital for indigent married women of good character. This was named the Preston Retreat (see our article here) and was demolished in 1963. The maternity hospital building opened in 1840, but was used as an orphanage for the first two decades due to funding issues.

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Anna Magee (1843-1923) When she died in 1923, she left $1,285,000 (inflation-adjusted $22.8 million) to Jefferson Hospital to establish what is now the Magee Rehabilitation Hospital, to provide quality care to those in need of physical convalescence no matter their income. The center is at 15th and Race with a satellite office in the Fountain View until August of 2023. In 2022 the Watermark had been sold and renamed the Fountain View.

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Thomas E. Cahill (1828-1878) was the president of the Knickerbocker Ice Company which had its largest distribution center where the Barnes is now located. He left the bulk of his $500,000 estate ($15 million today) to establish Roman Catholic High School, at Broad and Vine Streets, to provide free high school education to Philadelphia boys. To this day the students at Roman are nicknamed the Cahillites.

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Albert Barnes (1872-1951) left behind his art collection, today valued as high as $25 billion, which after tortuous legal battles ended up in our neighborhood, replacing the Youth Study Center building as discussed here.

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Then there are the two names carved in stone at 1601 Spring Garden Street: James Wills Jr. (1777-1825) and Bushrod Washington James (1836-1903). James Wills Jr., a Quaker merchant and bachelor, bequeathed the money to found a hospital for the blind and lame in 1832. B.W. James was a homeopathic physician on the 1700 block of Green Street. He never married. At his death in 1903 he left the City of Philadelphia houses and personal effects, as well as two endowments: $40,000 to establish a library; and $55,000 to fund an eye and ear institute. His intent was for the neighborhood library to occupy his two townhomes, but in 1907 the Spring Garden Library was constructed at 17th and Spring Garden Streets with funds provided by Andrew Carnegie. A library at least partially funded by B.W. James was eventually built in the Oxford Circle neighborhood of Philadelphia, and named the Bushrod Branch of the Free Library of Philadelphia (for its history see here). The eye and ear institute was incorporated into the Wills Eye Hospital in 1932, as discussed here.

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George S. Pepper (1808-1890) was a lawyer who never practiced law, but instead practiced philanthropy with his inherited wealth. He was unmarried and childless. In 1891 he bequeathed $225,000 to the City of Philadelphia to establish the Free Library of Philadelphia. The Parkway Central Library was to be the cornerstone of this system, and was completed in 1927. Pepper also left a bequest of $12,000 to the Charity Hospital while it was at 1832 Hamilton Street.

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Edwin A. Fleisher (1877-1959) was a childless philanthropist with an effect on our neighborhood. In Fleisher’s case, he donated his collection of over 3,000 musical scores, valued then at $500,000, to the Parkway Central Library in 1929, plus an endowment to keep the collection growing. This collection represents the largest repository of orchestral performance materials in the world.  These works, now numbering over 21,000, are loaned to performance organizations throughout the world for concerts and recordings. As noted in our article about Helen Fleisher, there were many members of Fleisher family in our neighborhood and the Fleisher Yarn Works, the source of the family wealth, had a satellite factory at 25th and Hamilton Streets.

 

John W. Hallahan was in the shoe and real estate business until his death in 1901. He had no children. His sister and business partner, Mary Hallahan McMichan, used $100,000 from his estate as seed money for the construction of the Catholic Girls High School at 319 North 19th Street. After Mary’s death in 1925 the name of the school was changed to John W. Hallahan Catholic Girls High School, per Mary’s wishes.

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As discussed in our article about the history of the Tivoli Condominiums site, Samuel Robinson was one of the two founders of the Acme Market supermarket chain, along with William Crawford. Both were boyhood friends in Ireland; both became rich through their innovative marketing; and both were childless. Crawford died in 1942. Robinson died in 1958. The latter was a generous donor to many causes during his lifetime, especially to the Presbyterian Orphanage in southwest Philadelphia at 58th and Kingsessing Avenue, which had been founded in 1877. When Robinson died in 1958, he left all of his estate to his favorite causes, and left his Rosemont mansion, Glencoe, to the Presbyterian Village. This allowed the orphanage’s move from a deteriorating Kingsessing neighborhood to a country estate. The history of the Presbyterian Children’s Village is given in the outside article here. Glencoe, where Robinson lived from 1925 to 1958, was sold off privately in 2022 for $20 million.